Bishops Reiterate Priorities To Protect Poor, Promote The Common Good In Letter To House

May 8, 2012

WASHINGTON—Congress should assess
every budget decision by how it reflects the shared responsibility of the
government and other institutions to protect human life and dignity, especially
of the poor and vulnerable, said the bishop who chairs the Committee on Domestic
Justice and Human Development of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
(USCCB) in a May 8 letter to the House of Representatives.

“The Catholic bishops of the United
States recognize the serious deficits our country faces, and we acknowledge
that Congress must make difficult decisions about how to allocate burdens and
sacrifices and balance resources and needs,” wrote Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of
Stockton, California, as the House prepared to vote on a reconciliation package
for the 2013 budget.“However, deficit
reduction and fiscal responsibility efforts must protect and not undermine the
needs of poor and vulnerable people. The proposed cuts to programs in the
budget reconciliation fail this basic moral test.”

Bishop Blaire singled out an
“unfair” proposal to change the Child Tax Credit to exclude children of
immigrant families, “the large majority of whom are American citizens,”
proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly
known as food stamps) that would affect all poor families and be “a direct
threat to their human dignity,” and the cutting of the Social Services Block
Grant, “an important source of funding for programs throughout the country”
that serve “the homeless, the elderly, people with disabilities, children
living in poverty, and abuse victims.”

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